A history of my phones: 2000-2008
With the launch of the Jesus phone iPhone locally, I thought it would be a nice time to take a look back at all the mobile phones I’ve owned…and also see how far phones have come.
Siemens S25
My first ever mobile phone, it was really advanced in in its time, featuring 8-colour screen at a time when most phone displays were still monochrome! Very sturdy and had much better reception than most other phones available at that time. Got it for FREE too with my first 2-year contract with Starhub in 2000.
Siemens SL45i
The black-and-orange was a step down from the S25, but it was the first ever mobile phone to feature actual MP3 playback! Yes, play MP3s! The included (proprietary) headphones sounded pretty good too. Bought it with my second ever paycheck in 2002.
Sony Ericsson T610
Finally made the jump to a color mobile phone. The interface was intuitive with nice icons and the phone even had a built-in camera too! No more antennae either. Bought this in early 2004.
Motorola RAZR V3
It wasn’t easy to resist the phone. Its sleek metallic finish and futuristic clamshell design are stunning even today. Its amazingly slim size and light weight meant it was infinitely pocketable. The interface was not quite as intuitive as the Sony Ericsson’s though. Traded the T610 in for this in mid 2005.
Palm Treo 650
I’d always hated the fact that I was lugging my phone, PDA, iPod and camera everywhere I went, so when I stumbled on the (second-hand) Treo 650 being sold at an amazing price, I just jumped on it. This phone did not disappoint – Palm had clearly tweaked the Palm OS so that we would have a smartphone rather than a phone with an operating system for PDAs tacked on. Of course, having the ability to run the thousands available Palm OS apps didn’t hurt either. The only thing was, I really hated the antennae – something I hadn’t had to contend with in 4 years! Voice quality wasn’t too hot either. So I had this for all of 2 months in late 2006 before replacing it with…
Palm Treo 680
Ah, an update to the Treo 650. Slightly slimmer, better voice quality and slightly improved interface too. Thumb typing was amazingly fast on this phone and finally got me to send hundreds of SMSs every month..Bought this in early 2007.
Palm Centro
A repackaged Treo 680 essentially – but smaller, slimmer and lighter, had longer battery life and was more stable. Yes, no longer could my colleagues joke about me lugging around a “brick weapon†which was my Treo! The thumb board was changed – the keys were smaller, but ended up being even easier to use because of its elevated and rubbery feel. Probably my last phone with Palm OS inside….Bought this in early 2008.
So what will my next phone be? Will it be another Palm – whether Windows Mobile or Palm OS Nova-flavoured? Or the iPhone? Or even a Blackberry? One thing for sure – it’ll definitely be another smartphone!
